Meseems I shall have to seek for a less suspicious, more
Christian-spirited household, whereon to bestow in the near future my
faithful services."

Hardly had Master Hymn-of-Praise finished speaking when he turned very
sharply round and looked with renewed sternness--wholly untempered by a
twinkle this time--in the direction whence he thought a suppressed
giggle had just come to his ears. But what he saw must surely have
completely reassured him; there was no suggestion of unseemly ribaldry
about the young lad who had been busy laying out the table with spoons
and mugs, and was at this moment vigorously--somewhat ostentatiously,
perhaps--polishing a carved oak chair, bending to his task in a manner
which fully accounted for the high color in his cheeks.

He had long, lanky hair of a pale straw-color, a thin face and high
cheek-bones, and was dressed--as was also Master Hymn-of-Praise Busy--in
a dark purple doublet and knee breeches, all looking very much the worse
for wear; the brown tags and buttons with which these garments had
originally been roughly adorned were conspicuous in a great many places
by their absence, whilst all those that remained were mere skeletons of
their former selves.

The plain collars and cuffs which relieved the dull color of the men's
doublets were of singularly coarse linen not beyond reproach as to
cleanliness, and altogether innocent of starch; whilst the thick brown
worsted stockings displayed many a hole through which the flesh peeped,
and the shoes of roughly tanned leather were down at heel and worn
through at the toes.

Undoubtedly even in these days of more than primitive simplicity and of